Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting. The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition. That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. The campaign isn’t going well.

Refugee crisis: Germany to reinstate border checks with AustriaGermany is to reintroduce border controls and will exit temporarily from the Schengen system, according to media reports, after the country’s regions said they could no longer cope with the overwhelming number of refugees arriving from Austria. According to Der Spiegel, the interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, is poised to announce new restrictive measures at a press conference in Berlin later on Sunday. They include shutting the country’s borders, sending hundreds of additional police officers to Bavaria and allowing entry to Germany only with a valid passport.14 Years After 9/11, the War on Terror Is Accomplishing Everything bin Laden Hoped It WouldFourteen years later and do you even believe it? Did we actually live it? Are we still living it? And how improbable is that? Fourteen years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites, the growth of the American national security state to monumental proportions, and the spread of Islamic extremism across much of the Greater Middle East and Africa.

Everything You Know About Dinosaur Deaths Is WrongPRINCETON, N.J. — Ask any T. Rex-obsessed 5-year-old boy how the dinosaurs died and he will tell you a giant asteroid killed them. He might describe a scene with a brontosaurus or two peacefully grazing, oblivious of the space rock whizzing past that will crash to Earth and ignite an explosion with the strength of a billion atomic bombs going off at once. A heat wave engulfs the globe, vaporizing most dinosaurs, with the rest starving to death as an ash cloud blocks the sunlight. The by-now iconic scene comes from a scientific paper first published on June 6, 1980, in Science magazine by a young geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, Walter Alvarez, and his Nobel Prize-winning father, Luis Alvarez.

Remove Saudi Arabia from the UN Panel on Human RightsAlso in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi We demand that Saudi Arabia be removed from any positions of influence or decision making in the United Nation Council on human rights until such times as they can demonstrate adherence to the spirit and principles of fundamental human rights. It is widely recognised globally and from many highly respected and independent human rights organisations that there are systematic and widespread abuses of human rights in Saudi Arabia including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and many others. We think and very strongly feel that any position of influence that Saudi Arabia has on the United Nations in relation to human rights and the abuse thereof calls in to question the legitimacy and efficacy of the organisation and diminishes the pursuit of freedom, tolerance and justice globally. Please visit our Facebook page: Remove Saudi Arabia from UNHRC

Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Have Cost $75,000 Per American HouseholdHOUSTON (MainStreet) — The crippled, dysfunctional country of Iraq is crumbling. Sunni extremists are marching to Baghdad while Kurdish militants are claiming points north. American armed and trained Iraqi government security forces are cowering in the face of the assaults. While President Obama considers a military response, the toll of nearly 4,500 U.S. troops lost in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is still very fresh on American's minds. A study released last year by Linda J.

Frederick Forsyth: Our way of life is now under threatMigrants wait to board the next ferry from Lesbos, Greece The whole continent of Europe is now under siege and the unspoken truth is that there is no sign of it ending. If the tide of refugees streaming towards us from Africa and near- Asia had one finite figure we could cope but it does not.Noam Chomsky: The US, Not Iran, Poses Greatest Threat to World PeaceIn a speech Saturday at The New School in New York, Noam Chomsky explained why he believes the US poses the greatest threat to world peace. "[The United States] is a rogue state, indifferent to international law and conventions, entitled to resort to violence at will. … Take, for example, the Clinton Doctrine - namely, the United States is free to resort to unilateral use of military power, even for such purposes as to ensure uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources - let alone security or alleged humanitarian concerns. And adherence to this doctrine is very well confirmed and practiced, as need hardly be discussed among people willing to look at the facts of current history." Chomsky also explained why he believes the US and its closest allies, namely Saudi Arabia and Israel, are undermining prospects for peace in the Middle East. This is a rush transcript.

The stories of a headscarfMuslim women are needed as critical agents of change in this historical transformative moment in Islamic history and the Middle East. Yet it’s tough to be a Muslim woman these days. We’ve become symbols, not individuals. And that’s in no small part thanks to the global fixation on the headscarf.